


Cycle

by rilina



Category: Naruto
Genre: Community: halfamoon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-01
Updated: 2008-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 08:58:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rilina/pseuds/rilina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin's grief never stops her from living.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cycle

Many think of Rin as the weakest member of her team, but she endures Obito’s death better than Kakashi or Sensei. Her training as a medic-nin sustains her: she’s seen death claim her patients too many times to be startled by it. Rin still mourns, but her grief never stops her from living.

After the war ends, she sees less and less of her surviving teammates. The dissolution of Team Yellow Flash had begun even before that fateful mission; Obito’s death only hastened the process. Now Kakashi has disappeared into ANBU; when she does see him, there’s a blank look in his lone visible eye. (Obito’s is always decorously covered; sometimes she asks herself what Obito would think of Kakashi’s choices.) And Sensei is being groomed for greatness. When the official announcement finally comes, she thinks to herself that it’s only right. Konoha needs the Yellow Flash.

Everything would just be easier if she and Kakashi didn’t still need him too.

So when she finds her sensei pacing the hallways of Konoha’s hospital, his hair standing even more on end than usual, her first reaction is one of pleasure: it’s been so long since she’s seen his sunny face. But then she begins to fret, because she knows better than most that visits to her workplace hardly ever bode well.

“Hokage-sama? Is—”

He answers her question before she can ask it. “No, no, nothing’s wrong. All is well. Very well, in fact. I have good news.” He beams as he tells her about the baby. Rin thinks that she’s never seen his smile this wide, even though she spent years watching him use his particular brand of charm to smooth over their team’s endless squabbles.

She surprises herself by grinning in answer. Happiness feels strange after the grim years of the war; even now, Rin can’t quite accustom herself to the idea that the war is over. But life and death are always hand-in-hand in Konoha. When Rin was still a trainee, one of the senior medics pointed out that only a single floor separated the operating rooms, where so many shinobi had died in surgery, from the maternity ward, where the next generation of Konoha genin were always being born. She hadn’t understood why that mattered then. Now she does.

“You’re the very first person we’ve told,” he tells her. “And I’m still your sensei, so I’ll trust you to remember that.”

“I will, Sensei. Can I tell Kakashi when I see him? Unless you’d like to tell him yourself—”

“Well, that privilege can go to whoever happens to see him first,” he says gravely. “Good luck on your next mission, Rin. If you haven’t gotten your orders yet, they’ll reach you by morning.”

The courier is waiting for her when she returns to her usual station. She hardly glances at the mission brief before stuffing it carelessly into one of the pockets of her apron. For once, she doesn’t pause to wonder if this is the mission from which she won't return.


End file.
